Pursuits

The Jet Engine: No Invention of the Past 85 Years Had a Greater Impact on the World

From top, left to right: Adrienne Grunwald; Martin Lebetsamer; Katie Orlinsky; Alexander Künzle; Teru Kuwayama; Yaeko Noriki; Balazs Gardi; John Francis Peters; Simon Abud; Amanda C. Long; Eric Alexandre; Scott Mainwaring; Dan Bello; Jake Stangel; Onuralp Özdemir; Andrey Strelchuk; Lauren Kenney; Julia Riley; Derek Shank; Chris Roberson; Brian Finke; Jake Stangel; Dan Bello; Kenneth Lim

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By Ashlee Vance

December 4, 2014 at 12:59 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

This article is part of the December 8, 2014 issue of businessweek.

1958 Pan Am inaugurates daily Boeing 707 service across the Atlantic.

Something about the human spirit compels us to go faster and farther. That’s why Howard Hughes spent 1935 risking his life flying experimental planes to break speed barriers and why he took even graver risks in 1938 to fly around the world in record time. Hughes had everything to lose—fame, fortune, beautiful girlfriends, some might say his mind—and yet he needed to know what his machines could do.